Local Market Update - August 2017

Local Market Update - August 2017

In a market that hasn’t had recent interest rate cuts, Melbourne’s continued house price growth and steady clearance rates are healthy market indicators for a vibrant spring selling season.

Last year’s spring selling season was energised by the last official interest rate cut in August 2016. With the residential market now lacking the stimulus of lower interest rates we are unlikely to achieve the 80% clearance rates of last spring but Melbourne will still remain a sellers’ market for the remainder of 2017.

So, whilst our heady Melbourne market is amongst the strongest in the country and we don’t anticipate much to change this year, the big question is what prices will look like next year?

An interesting article in Domain earlier in August asked five top Australian economists to provide their forecasts for price growth over the next 12 months – and it seems the ‘boom’ is yet to run its course, with four of the five experts anticipating continued price growth in the housing market in the 2017-18 financial year of between 2-10%. (The remaining expert forecast zero growth.) Interest rates are also projected to remain on hold until October 2018. So, in a nutshell, whilst no one anticipates a repeat of the 15.1% increase of the last financial year, we can expect property prices to continue to grow over the next 12 months.

Locally, there were 14 sales in Beaumaris for August – similar to July (15). However there are 29 properties currently on the market which is up slightly from 22 last month. There were 11 sales in Black Rock for August – nearly double that of July (6) but we still have only 24 properties currently on the market – not much change from the 22 of last month.

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